The present invention relates to x-ray imaging, and more particularly, to detection of curve structures in 2D fluoroscopic images.
The detection of curve structures in medical imaging has many practical applications. For example, it is desirable to detect vessel branches in angiograms, and to detect guidewires and catheters in fluoroscopic images. Existing methods have been developed to automatically detect curve structures, such as guidewires and vessels. Although a fully automatic method is desirable in many cases, the existing automatic methods are prone to errors that are caused by image noise and curve-like artifacts. Some curve detection applications cannot tolerate a significant amount of error. For example, detection of a guidewire in a fluoroscopic image is challenging because guidewires are thin and typically have low visibility in fluoroscopic images, which typically have poor image quality due to the low dose of radiation used in interventional imaging. Accordingly, an accurate and robust method that utilizes expert interactions to detect curve structures in fluoroscopic images is desirable.